Day 18 of 30 Days Wild was spent in the Natural History Museum in London, whose Zoology collection houses 29 million species. Needless to say we did not see everything.

There is just about any natural creature you could desire to learn about in this museum but we limited ourselves to a handful of different areas - no sense in trying to the whole thing in my opinion, at least not with small children. Emma was largely interested in creepy crawlies (green zone) and the earthquake experience in the Kobe supermarket. I am not sure the seriousness of it was totally absorbed!

We also spent time looking at a few other things from birds to dinosaur fossils. There is also currently a temporary butterfly house outside, which was a great delight for any child learning about mini-beasts, although it does cost a few pounds, unlike the museum itself.

Have you heard of a phonescope?

Talking of spending money, how cool is this little gadget we bought in one of the gift shops?

The Phonescope fits onto the camera of your smartphone and lights up its target thanks to a tiny little bulb. It requires no software and, although it may not be the most hardwearing piece of kit, it works with the camera as a microscope, magnifying up to 30x, and you can take picture or film as you would normally.

It costs 10 GBP (approx. 13 USD). I couldn't find a link to it but found this similar gadget on Amazon which claims to magnify up to 60x.